Herdbull

My parents bought me a used Stingray back in 1966, it was well used and several years old at that time. It was redish colored with Schwinn stencils, had a Schwinn name plate on the head tube, and a white banana seat. However it was a little different than other Stingray's I encountered in that the upper rear swing arms left the drop outs and terminated at the seat tube riser rather than continuing on to the the head tube as every other Stingray I have ever seen do. The bike went through many changes over the years and the guy at the local bike shop was always after me to sell it to him, but I still have it and would appreciate any help to identify it's age which I have been unable to do with any of the on line sites I have found. The bottom bracket is stamped with 1/4" letters/numbers, centered in the bracket is the number X87102, also along the edge near the bearing cup there is a figure I can only describe as a cross between a sombrero and Pacman folllowed by 1/4" numbers 237.
I was hoping for any info you folks might be able to share, thank you.

Esteban32696

Pictures of both sides of the bike would help us better understand & identify.

wrk101

Better off going to the CABE forum, or ratrods. Not much Stingray stuff on here.

Several years old in 1966? Then its not a Stingray, its a cruiser bike that was modified. Stingrays started coming out in 1964+/-. When they came out, lots of people modified their existing bikes to make them look like Stingrays.

repechage

I think also it was Stingray sized, not a Stingray. The Stingray was created from essentially existing stuff, just put together in a strategic way. Buying a seat, brace and butterfly bars would have been the cheap route to one that would be acceptably close.
Way way back a local kid had what I called an ancient Schwinn frame in the "Stingray" size, while the finish was going I really liked the style, the Dad had no interest in selling it, even though that it was just tossed in the back yard with other bike debris. 1966 for a used Stingray would be pretty uncommon in any event.

kingsting

Post a picture as it could be anything. The last year that Chicago built Schwinns had a serial # on the bottom bracket shell was early 1952. After that they went to the right rear dropout until mid 1970 then they went to the headtube.

steppinthefunk 

If the seat stays (proper bicycle term for "upper swing arms") terminate at the seat tube then I suspect it is a female frame.

repechage

No, not necessarily, I have seen old Schwinn frames where the seat stays terminate at the seat tube / top tube intersection and there are additional horizontal tubes that run from the down tube to the seat tube below the top tube.

Wisco

Schwinn made 20" cantilever frames for many years before the Stingray, and confusingly, also made a 20" Spitfire in the '60s that was essentially a Jr. Stingray with the 7-hole crank. What I've run across a lot recently is Stingray frames modded up with late 70s BMX parts. I love seeing the efforts of kid mechanics, some of the combinations of stuff are pretty wild.